Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 16, 2019)
NEWS Wallowa.com Wednesday, October 16, 2019 A5 Gov. Kate Brown recall efforts fail to make ballot By Claire Withycombe Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Supporters of a petition to recall Gov. Kate Brown came up short of the signatures needed for a ballot challenge, Oregon Republican Party Chair Bill Currier said Monday. Currier made the announcement midday on the Lars Larson Show, the conservative talk show. Supporters needed at least 280,050 valid signatures by 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14 to put a recall on the ballot. One effort, fi led by Cur- rier, fell short by about 8 percent, or about 22,400 signatures. A separate effort, known as “Flush Down Kate Brown,” received 100,000 signatures by people who were not on the GOP’s sig- nature list, Larson said on the show. Larson said that effort also was not as suc- cessful as the party’s. Michael Cross, the lead sponsor of the “Flush Down Kate Brown” petition, deliv- ered nine boxes of petitions to the Secretary of State’s offi ce around 2 p.m. on Monday, according to the Secretary of State’s offi ce. Workers counted all 23,926 signature sheets. But since each sheet can only have, at most, ten sig- natures each, after counting the sheets it was clear there weren’t enough signatures for that effort to qualify for the ballot. Currier told Larson that there was “absolutely” sup- port for another recall effort. “This fi ght is not over,” Currier said. Currier said that between the two efforts, enough valid signatures were collected. “Another way to put this, is, there were enough sig- natures collected…they just can’t be combined,” he said. Currier also said that the petition received quite a few invalid signatures that he said could be easily cor- rected if petitioners fi le Brown, a Democrat, was again. Many invalid signa- fi rst appointed governor in tures were “simply illegi- 2015 after John Kitzhaber ble,” Currier said. resigned after an infl u- He said over the week- ence-peddling scandal. She end, they had been able was elected to fi ll Kitzhaber’s to identify about 100,000 unexpired term in 2016 and invalid signatures by regis- reelected in 2018. tered voters whose signa- In the election last year, tures could be converted into Brown received 50.05 per- valid signatures. cent of the vote, or 934,498 “We have an address and votes, according to Sec- a name, and retary of with a lit- State data. tle bit of Her main research, opponent, we can tie Republi- that to a can Knute Oregon Republican specific Buehler, Party Chair Bill Currier person and received make that 814,988 valid,” Cur- votes. rier said. “And there were Currier said the public other folks who didn’t put and the party’s volunteers the correct information were committed to the cause down, they put the wrong of removing Brown. address, and so we can The GOP petition said tie them back to a correct Brown has “overturned address.” the will of the voters” by Currier did not return allowing undocumented requests seeking further immigrants to get driver’s comment Monday. licenses, “failed to protect ‘THIS FIGHT IS NOT OVER.’ when an elected offi cial has committed a crime, not when someone disagrees with the policies of the governor or another elected offi cial.” “The extremists pushing reckless recalls want to over- turn the will of the voters who elected Democrats by wide margins,” Wheatley said. “In rejecting this recall, the pub- lic has sent a clear message: Oregonians don’t want to waste their tax dollars on a reckless recall against Dem- ocratic lawmakers who are moving our state forward.” Currier said that the num- ber of signatures they gath- ered in three months was “historic.” Experts had observed that getting enough signatures within 90 days with an all-volunteer cam- paign would be a steep climb. “I think people need to understand that we had 90 days to collect twice as many signatures as a normal petition, which gets a whole year to do that,” Currier said. “So this is historic.” Oregon’s foster children” and “failed to address” the state’s public pension debt, among other grievances. “The volunteers are, for the most part, so committed to seeing Brown removed that we can carry this for- ward,” Currier said on the show, “But we do have to work out details like timing, when we begin round two, setting up the infrastructure for all of that to happen. So this fi ght is defi nitely not over.” Brown’s supports say she has fulfi lled her campaign promises. “Gov. Brown ran a cam- paign promising to move Oregon forward by invest- ing in our schools, creat- ing paid family and medi- cal leave, and protecting the environment,” said Thomas Wheatley, political adviser to Brown, in a written statement Monday. “That’s exactly what she did this year.” Wheatley contended that “recalls should be used only Some Northeast Oregonians and tribal members are dreaming of a freer Snake River GUEST COLUMN Christina de Villier I t’s all connected: that was the take- away theme from this year’s Nimiipuu River Rendezvous, the fi fth annual paddle rally on behalf of breaching the four lower Snake River dams. “From the mountaintops to the ocean, it’s the same water,” said Nez Perce Tribal member Gary Dorr, whose lineage is Wallowa band, and who was paddle master of the event. “We want you to go home with a lot of relationship to this water,” he told gathered attendees at Hells Gate State Park on September 20th, 2019, as he and others welcomed them to the Rendezvous. The three-day event included fi lm screen- ings; dancing; two nights of shared food including elk and salmon (Alaskan salmon, ironically— this year’s Snake River Chinook returns have been very low); talks and stories by Tribal elders, economists, sci- entists, and fi sh and orca advocates remember- ing the river before the lower Snake dams went in and making the case for their removal; and a paddle that brought hun- dreds of people out onto the reservoir to show support for a free-fl ow- ing river. A small contingent had made the trek from Union and Wallowa counties to the event at Hells Gate State Park. Why did these Orego- nians come? What do they imagine will hap- pen in their upstream homes if these four dams (Ice Harbor, People think that’s a bad thing, an ugly thing. But lamprey are buffer prey. The predator birds and fi sh feed on lamprey and so the juvenile salmon make it through. It’s a trade-off. This year, 21 of these fi sh made it up here to our waters. In our lifetimes, some- thing could go extinct. This year, for all we know. Our food supply is upside down.” Pip Redding of Enter- prise agreed. Breach- Christina deVillier Canoes from many Pacifi c Northwest tribes, including the Nez ing the dams “could Perce, Spokane, and many others participated in the rally for strengthen local food removal of the four lower Snake River dams. systems,” he said. “There’s inherent value iment”—it gets caught Lower Granite, Lower to being able to get your behind the dams and Monumental and Lit- tle Goose) are breached? has to be dredged every food from the place where you are.” Each had their own rea- couple of years, at tax- Throughout the payer expense—“so the sons, but all echoed the same theme: connection. beaches and backwaters rendezvous, as they watched fi lms and dis- are gone or disappear- “If we took these cussed economic trans- ing; there are no nooks dams out,” said Garik formations, attendees and crannies being cre- Asplund of Joseph, at the rally worked to ated anymore for the “there’d be a stron- keep in mind the con- bottom-of-the-food- ger link between our nections between small chain critters that sus- inland mountains and abundant species and the ocean. Salmon are a tain abundance. Fish large endangered ones, decline is just the most huge source of marine between mountains obvious decline. It’s all nutrients for our trees, and oceans, snowpack connected.” for our rivers, for the and late-season water, Gary Dorr, the Wal- lake, for people—why lowa Band Tribal mem- water temperatures and would you cut off a fi sh survival, irrigators self-sustaining infl ux of ber, is also a former and predators, econom- nutrients when you need Chairman of the Nez ics and natural systems. Perce Tribe and a mem- it?” While these relation- ber of the recently con- David Moyal of vened Idaho Governor’s ships are complex, La Grande said he’d one connection is very Salmon Workgroup. brought his ten-year- straightforward, and it Over the course of the old son to the rally to infused the whole gath- rally, Gary spoke about help him understand the ering: what happens on salmon and the strug- interconnectedness of the lower Snake River gling Puget Sound all the life that depends matters to everyone orcas, which depend on on the Northwest’s great abundant Chinook runs. upstream and down. As river systems. David Nez Perce elder Allen But he too emphasized was once a river guide the less charismatic ani- Pinkham Senior put it, and he remembers trips on the Snake before the mals. “This year 21 lam- whether you’re Tribal or non-tribal, a top-of-the- dams went in: “Beaches prey make it through foodchain human being the dams,” he said, for the size of fi ve football or a lamprey, a headwa- example. “There used fi elds, endless beaches, to be millions. Lamprey ters hiker or an ocean and the trees and ani- fi sherman, “what we mals down by the water swim awkwardly. They latch onto salmon to all have in common is were just amazing. get around more easily. water.” Being on the river now is great,” he said, “but ELECTRICAL & PLUMBING SUPPLIES it tears my heart out, too, because the ripar- ELECTRICAL & WATER SYSTEM ian corridor is deci- CONTRACTOR PUMPS • IRRIGATION mated. There’s no sed- HARDWARE• APPLIANCE PARTS Ellen Morris Bishop First graders in Mrs. Hook’s Enterprise Elementary School class examine a real bear claw necklace and beaded moccasins as part of understanding the close relationship between the Nez Perce and the natural world. The event was part of the school’s celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day. Enterprise Elementary School celebrates Indigenous People’s Day By Ellen Morris Bishop Wallowa County Chieftain Enterprise Elementary School and the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Homeland Project collaborated to cel- ebrate Oregon’s offi cial holiday of Indigenous Peo- ples Day with discussions and hands-on displays about the lives and culture of the Nez Perce. About 100 children in grades K-3 participated. They exam- ined teepees, necklaces, and the seasonal round cal- endar to learn about the Nez Perce’s relationship with the natural world. They thought about how a culture could use oral sto- rytelling rather than writ- ing to pass on its history. And they learned that peo- ple had lived here for more than 16,000 years. “It’s important for chil- dren to understand both perspectives, and be aware of the bigger picture of what truly happened during the settlement of our land,” said Superintendent Erika Pinkerton. “This is an opportu- nity to explore the deep history of this region,” said Angela Bombaci, of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Homeland Project who developed and coor- dinated the event. “We wanted the kids to know 1) Whose homeland they live in 2) That they were here long before any Europeans traveled here 3) That their respect and knowledge of the land allowed them to live well for thousands of years here 4) That Indige- nous peoples know many things to be true about the ancient past even if not written in books, thanks to oral tradition and archaeo- logical evidence. We were excited to receive the invi- tation from Enterprise Pri- mary School. Indigenous People’s Day is a great opportunity to start a con- versation with these young kids that we can build on as they grow up in this community. We hope to celebrate this holiday with even more students next year.” Now in Paperback Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver 107 E. Main St. 541.426.3351 Always open at www.bookloftoregon.com • bookloft@eoni.com SPACE RESERVATION DEADLINES for weekly advertising is 5pm Friday for the following week. Ad copy is DUE on Monday at 10am. Ads MUST be approved by Tuesday at NOON. Contact Jennifer Cooney at jcooney@wallowa.com • 541-805-9630 208 S. RIVER ST. • ENTERPRISE, OR www.jbbane.com • 541-426-3344 209 NW First St., Enterprise • 541-426-4567